PORTSMOUTH — A snowy, and thus far abnormally cold, winter season has state and local officials scrambling to replenish their road salt supplies.

Charles McMahon

PORTSMOUTH — A snowy, and thus far abnormally cold, winter season has state and local officials scrambling to replenish their road salt supplies.

A simple drive past Granite State Minerals' Market Street Terminal this week proves the popular commodity has been in high demand.

As of Wednesday, the normally mammoth pile of salt that towers high above the roadway had been reduced to a small hill that barely stuck out above the brick wall that lines Market Street Extension.

Bill Creighton, general manager at Granite State Minerals, said there is nothing to fear, however, and there is plenty of salt to go around.

"We also have a stockpile at Maplewood Avenue," he said. "So this yard may be low, but the Maplewood yard is fully stocked."

The riverfront salt yard is also expecting a shipment any day now, which Creighton said is coming from mines located along the west coast of South America.

Creighton said the ships can carry between 30,000 and 45,000 tons of salt.

"The yard can at least hold two to three ships if we had to," he said.

When the salt does arrive, Creighton said, trucks then distribute it to municipalities in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. The salt is typically transported as far as 120 miles west, which Creighton said is where an imaginary line has been drawn between hauling the salt by road or by rail.

"That's where the trucking and the rail are at parity," he said.

Creighton said it is not necessarily a bad thing when the yard gets low.

"It's good when this yard is low because then we can easily off-load ships," he said.

And while most would think that the winter season has been a major money maker for Granite State Minerals, Creighton said it's pretty much on par for a normal winter.

"If we get three or four more of these storms, then we'll track above normal," he said. "It's the bitter cold that's abnormal."

A lot of times, people assume that the more snow there is, the more salt a business such as Granite State Minerals sells, Creighton said, adding that is not necessarily the case.

"A very large storm of, like, 2 feet doesn't bring us any more business as something like 2 inches," he said. "It's a shame to have 20-inch storms. We'd rather see 10 2-inch storms."

In Portsmouth, which is one of the many customers of Granite State Minerals, the winter storm budget appears to be slowly melting away.

As of this week, City Manager John Bohenko said the city has spent roughly $109,000 on salt so far this season. The overall annual snow removal budget is roughly $400,000, which accounts for manpower, overtime and materials.

Bohenko said public works crews required three salt deliveries during the last storm alone.

The state, another of Granite State Minerals customer, also appears to be slowly chipping away at its winter budget.

New Hampshire Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton said as of last Thursday, the DOT had used 57,000 tons of salt, which equates to roughly $3.2 million.

Boynton, who gets weekly updates on salt use and the winter storm budget, said overall the state has spent roughly 38 percent of its anticipated winter expenditures, which equates to $15.2 million used out of the entire $40 million budget.

In years past, Boynton said he can recall DOT workers waiting at the gates to get more salt.

"Most, if not all, of it comes in through Portsmouth," he said.

These days, the N.H. DOT has vastly improved salt storage capabilities, he said.

In addition to stockpiling salt, Boynton said officials are on the lookout for alternative treatment solutions. But in the end, he said, salt continues to be, and pretty much always has been, the go-to resource.

"Bottom line is salt continues to be the most cost effective, anti-icing chemical on a large scale," Boynton said.

He said that while it is obvious salt has an environmental impact, the DOT has a responsibility to make sure state-maintained roads throughout New Hampshire are accessible.

"We're always trying to balance between the safety of the traveling public and concerns of the environment," he said.

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